House On The Embankment Conformism

Yuri Trifonov chronicled the life of a Soviet conformist named Vadim Aleksandrovich Glebov in his novel, The House on the Embankment. Vadim Glebov leads a life in support of the Soviet Union’s tyranny and oppression of human rights in order to gain the high social status and power he envied beginning in childhood. The novel is a narrative that revolves around Glebov’s education and success, and it depicts what life was like as a Soviet citizen between the 1930’s and 1970’s. Through Glebov’s revealed repressed memories, we see the ultimate example of conformity. Young Glebov knew several classmates who had lived at the house on the embankment, and he envied their lifestyle. Glebov was raised near the House on the Embankment, a large and elegant
Professor Ganchuk became his supervisor at school and they had been close. Glebov was finally gaining some status because of this relationship. He was the “vice chairman of the Student Academic Society,” and the majority of the school, including the dean, knew about his association with Professor Ganchuk (Trifonov 318). In his final year if graduate school Glebov was confronted by Dean Druzyaev in regards to some questions he had about Ganchuk. He was again interrogated in the same way that Lev’s stepfather had when he was young. He again was stricken with nervousness because each answer he gave was potentially incriminating. Although Glebov tried his best to not say anything that would harm Professor Ganchuk, he ended up revealing something that led to a barrage of questions directed toward incriminating his supervisor. When he admitted these things and conformed to the requests of the dean, he once again betrayed someone close to him in order to protect himself from any negative consequences. Glebov immediately felt conflict because knew that Professor Ganchuk was an honorable man regardless of what Druzyaev was trying to make him out to be. He compared this situation to ones experienced by other prominent scholars such as Boris Astrug saying “Astrug had made a few mistakes in his time—there were some methodological lapses in his book on Gorky” (Trifonov 307). He understood that
The dean “ordered [him] to change his supervisor, then tell them about Ganchuk’s ideological deviations” (Trifonov 311). He was also asked to speak on behalf of Ganchuk after the news broke that he had been fired. Nonetheless, Glebov was conflicted because he was being torn apart by both the dean and by fellow students who had also respected Ganchuk greatly. He wondered why “it was essential to humiliate people to such a degree” that Druzyaev had requested (Trifonov 312). On the other hand, he could potentially lose his scholarship, which he desperately needed as he was close to finishing his dissertation and completing graduate school. He had a choice to make, but because he was a conformist and formed to the rules it was a difficult one to make. Fortunately in this case, his grandmother had saved him one last time in his life. Grandma Nila had been his primary caretaker even though he was raised with his parents. She had saved him because she became sick and pass away, causing him to miss the event in which he was requested to speak at. However that was not the last of the conflict. There was a second event held later in the year in which he was asked to do the same thing. At that event, he denounced Professor Ganchuk, which led to the start of his successful, but inhumane career. He chose to keep his scholarship and allow himself to yet